The Simpsons Turns 25 With Kristen Wiig, Guillermo Del Toro And More

TV Guide

Friday

Sep 27, 2013 at 12:30 PM

When Homer Simpson suddenly stops eating pork and drinking booze it can only mean one thing he's gone Muslim! Homeland gets spoofed when The Simpsons returns for its 25th season Sunday, Sept. 29 (8/7c, Fox) to find the D'oh ...

When Homer Simpson suddenly stops eating pork and drinking booze it can only mean one thing - he's gone Muslim! Homeland gets spoofed when The Simpsons returns for its 25th season Sunday, Sept. 29 (8/7c, Fox) to find the D'oh Man greatly changed after his trip to a nuclear-power convention.

"Lisa concludes that her dad may have been 'turned' so she brings in an FBI terrorist expert named Annie, voiced by Kristen Wiig," says exec producer Al Jean. Alas Annie, like Claire Danes' Carrie, has her issues. "She's on meds and having hallucinations, plus she's feeling very conflicted," Jean says. "She wants to arrest Homer but she's also in love with him."

The show's annual Treehouse of Horror episode (Oct. 6) - always eagerly awaited by the fans - has Bart beheaded in a kite accident and a 1930s-era segment with Marge and Homer working in a freak-show traveling circus run by Mr. Burns. The couch-gag opener - directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan's Labyrinth) - features an array of famous monsters from horror-film history.

This season's starry voice cast will also include Zach Galifianakis as "a fat kid who wants to enter an eating contest but barfs at the first hot dog," says Jean. Eva Longoria plays a little girl much like Lisa: smart, into music, socially aware, only she's - gasp! - a Republican. Marvel mastermind Stan Lee will perform the ceremony when Comic Book Guy gets married. "The great science fiction writer Harlan Ellison is also in that episode," notes Jean. "It's a nerd extravaganza."

Daniel Radcliffe is back on the show, this time as an older boy who befriends Bart in a riff on Catcher in the Rye, while MSNBC fave Rachel Maddow will play Kent Brockman's co-anchor at Springfield's Channel 6. And, in a Simpsons first, Homer will deliver a baby. "I don't know how the heck it took us 25 years to get around to this," says Jean with a laugh. "Homer will get stuck in an elevator with a pregnant single lady, played by Elisabeth Moss, who goes into labor. She's so touched and grateful to Homer that she names the baby Homer Jr. - and Marge is not happy about it!"

Here's an exclusive first look at the poster for "Treehouse of Horror XXIV."

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